The Chicago City Council passed a “snap” curfew ordinance on June 18 that allows the superintendent to impose short-notice ...

Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for an average $93.6 million a year for legal judgments and settlements against the city. A Better Government Association policy team analysis found that after years ...

With 852 separate districts, Illinois has the third most school districts in the nation, bested only by Texas and California, whose populations are more than double ours.

For first-time watchers, Chicago’s City Council can seem incomprehensible. Most of the business is done in a routine, rapid-fire succession of votes and gavel raps, punctuated by repetitions of the ...

Chicago’s City Council allows public comment at all of its meetings, including meetings of its committees. There are multiple ways to submit public comment, but each has a specific application process ...

A series of new lobbying priorities announced by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference last week included tweaks to revenues the city currently receives from the state government, but ...

The Department of Assets, Information and Services, which oversees the city’s physical buildings and facilities, motor pool and IT infrastructure, was created in the 2020 budget by the merger of the ...

During his campaign for mayor, Johnson completed a questionnaire from the BGA Policy that asked for his positions on various issues such as policing, public safety, education, and economic development ...

Perhaps you’ve heard the buzz about something called ranked choice voting. Instead of marking their ballots for just one candidate, voters are asked to rank two or three or more, with the winner ...

Chicago City Council is spending only two-fifths of its time on legislative work, with the other two-thirds devoted to honorary resolutions.

BGA Policy is proud to lead the Court Transparency Coalition, which recommends that the judicial branch be added to the state’s FOIA.